lousy video

Guys:

I have a Dell with an Intel 733Mz and Dell M781S monitor. I've upgraded the video card to an ATI All-in-Wonder Radeon with TV-out. Its an AGP card.

Everything works OK, but the video quality seems poor compared to what it was and to other computers I have, with more humble components.

I've upgraded the driver for the monitor and card, but it hasn't helped.
Installing also installed DirectX 8.0a

Some symptoms are:
The windows logo on booting is squashed vertically with black bars at the top and bottom of the screen until windows is loaded. Then it's OK.

In Control Panel/System/Hardware/Device Manager, "ATI Video Capture" has a yellow exclamation mark. I've deleted the entry and it reinstalls on booting with the same thing.

Graphics are washed out in some apps and are too dark with no shadows in others.

If you copy/paste a Windows panel to MSWord, (alt/PrintScrn and Ctl/V), it's washed out and almost unreadable.

Info and settings from Control Panel/Display/Advanced are as follows:

Video Adapter

All-In-Wonder Radeon
System version 4.00
Current files ATIDRAG.DRV, *vdd, *vflatd, ATI2VXAG.VXC

Monitor Dell - M781S
Hardware Acceleration - Full

Color Profile - M781S

Open GL settings:
Optimization - Quality
Settings - Enable page flipping
Wait for vertical sync
Level of Detail - Sharp
everything else is disabled or off

Direct 3d:
Wait for vertical sync - on
Compressed texture format - on
Z buffer bit depths - 16;24
8 bit stencil - off
ATI aliasing - disabled
Dithering - use error diffusion

Options:
Version:
Build - D7.20.-0117b-129C-ATI
Desktop - 4.12.2490
Driver - 4.13.7075
Enable ATI taskbar icon application - checked

Display Properties Settings:
Display - Dell M781S on All In wonder Radeon
256 colors
800x600 pixels

Hardware Profiles Properties:
Display adapter - ASIC Type - Radeon
ASIC ID 5144
Bus type - AGP1X, AGP2X, AGP4X
Bios version 001.001.000.055
Bios part number - 113-73701-101
Bios date 2000/08/28

Memory size 32.0
Memory type DDR SGRAM,/ SDRAM
Driver file ATI2DRAG.DRV
Release version - D7.20-0117b-129C-ATI

Any ideas?

 

Unless you prefer 256 for color set it to 32M or true color. ATI's new all-in-a-wonder drivers are dx8.1 . I would upgrade to 8.1 and then make sure the latest drivers you have are correct. (be sure to follow ATI's instructions for updating drivers), if not dl and update. did you install the ati video capture drivrs? (seperate from video drivers)
might also check here: http://support.ati.com/products/pc/r...eon_setup.html
If you still get cruddy video I would think about exchanging the card, you may have just gotten a bad one.

Brian

 

Thanx, Brian. I downloaded Directx8.1 and the Radeon 4.13.9009 driver and will try installing them.

(The new driver was posted today).

 

I agree with BSB, up your video settings to 16-bit or higher.
256 colors was good years ago, but inadequate today.
Right click on your desktop, select properties. Select 'Settings' tab and choose higher color settings. Try 16-bit. If picture is good, try upping to 32-bit,,,,,,,, or whatever looks good to you.

 

Should have mentioned, I tried all the color settings listed - 16bit, 32bit, 256. No difference. The TV however, looked fine thru all this, but the monitor remained crappy looking.

Went thru hours of excruciating agony.

Downloaded and installed Directx8.1 and new driver for the video card. Lovely. It doesn't have support for TV out. Only monitor and flat panel display show in the display devices.
Uninstalled and installed prior driver (older than this one, but newer than original).

Lost all sound (SBLive Value).

Uninstalled prior video driver and installed original driver. No change.
Uninstalled original and reinstalled prior driver. No change.

Downloaded and installed driver upgrade from SoundBlaster site. No help. Removed references to sound card in Device Manager. Reinstalled devices on reboot. No joy.

Any suggestions?
I was thinking of pulling both cards, reinserting the original video card, leaving out the sound card. Reboot. Settle everything down. Reinsert the sound card. Reboot. Install the original sound card driver (if I can find it). If it works, swap the video cards and reninstall the original video driver.
Sound like a plan?

 

OK here's a shot in the dark.......... You may think I am nuts!
Turn the PC off. Disconnect the video cable and examine the pins very carefully.
Are all the pins in the male DB-15 plug straight? If any are bent, use small/narrow needle nosed pliers to pinch on the pins to straighten out, gently/carefully re-insert into video card.
While you have the PC off, might consider re-seating the video card.
Have you also removed 'Ghost' devices from Device Manager? Go into 'Safe Mode' and look in Device Manager. Click the "+" on left side of most of the listed devices. Leave 'System Devices' alone!!!!!!!

Think very, very hard on what makes sense! Look for devices installed more than once. Two CD ROMs listed, but you only have one? Remove both listed CD ROMs. Windows will re-install when you re-boot. Hard drive controller (IDE controller) should be left alone, too. Common devices with multiple installs; CD ROM/Floppy disk drive/ Floppy controller/KB/Mice/Monitors [have seen 7 listed at one time!!!].

Maybe this will help..... grabbing at straws here people...... Help me out.......

 

I won't claim expertise with you system or the card, but the most telling comments are:

The windows logo on booting is squashed vertically with black bars at the top and bottom of the screen until windows is loaded. Then it's OK.

In Control Panel/System/Hardware/Device Manager, "ATI Video Capture" has a yellow exclamation mark. I've deleted the entry and it reinstalls on booting with the same thing.

The BIOS initially assigns IRQs, I/O addresses, and DMA channels. The conflict between the logo and black screen seems to indicate an I/O conflict. Ignoring it will not solve the problem, because Windows is unable to completely resolve it.

Ideally the card is software configurable, or possibly it can be changed with jumpers or switches. The directx trouble shooter and device manager are the starting points.

 

This may sound silly too but switch the SB Live card to another PCI slot. These slots are supposed to assign the IRQ’s etc but they can get confused. I have seen this many times and it has driven me nuts many times…

 

Re: "In Control Panel/System/Hardware/Device Manager, "ATI Video Capture" has a yellow exclamation mark. "

Right-click that and check the properties. See if the "device is working properly" appears, or if a conflict appears. If there's a conflict, it needs to be resolved.

You might also want to try resetting the monitor to defaults (I think there's a "reset" button on it...)